The Harriet Tubman Story

This entry in the acclaimed animated Torchlighters series tells the remarkable story of Harriet Tubman, a Maryland slave who escaped to freedom in Pennsylvania via the Underground Railroad and then repeatedly returned to help her family and others escape. We meet Harriet as a little girl with a strong will, subjected to harsh treatment by slave masters and being a worry to her oppressed parents, who fear for her. In her 20s, Tubman is surreptitiously informed about the Underground Railroad—a network of havens for runaway slaves heading north. Her courage and determination reveal themselves when she chooses to go back to Maryland and lead her mother and father to freedom, and then helps many more African Americans do the same. The script doesn't get into later aspects of Tubman's mission (spying for the Union Army, working with abolitionist John Brown), but it does an excellent job of putting her historical achievements on the Underground Railroad in a meaningful context and in stirring personal terms. Highly recommended. Aud: E, I, P. (T. Keogh)